Mark Bugnaski / Kalamazoo GazetteBesham Sugrim, 35, center, appears in court Tuesday as jury selection begins. Sugrim is charged with first-degree murder in the September 2003 slaying of Linda Kay Gibson, 39, who was stabbed and beaten to death, before she was found buried under debris in a vacant lot in the Kalamazoo's Edison neighborhood.

KALAMAZOO — The jury that will decide whether Besham Sugrim murdered Linda Kay Gibson in 2003 was introduced to the man the prosecutor characterized as “evil” and shown photos of Gibson's badly beaten, dirt-covered body on Wednesday.

During his opening statement, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Stuart Fenton painted a picture of a self-absorbed husband and father who intimidated his family into silence and lied to police about his involvement in the Gibson case.

"He posed the body naked, spread eagle underneath a board so someone could find the body that way," Fenton told the jury. "He killed her in the family van. We know the deeper reason why this happened and why it took so long to come out — that explanation requires insight to the defendant's mind and psyche.”

"The defendant thinks extremely high of himself," Fenton continued. "He doesn't tolerate stupidity. He does not suffer fools. In his own words he said, 'Evil cannot thrive without stupidity.' His form of evil is counting on your stupidity."

Fenton told jurors they would be hearing from Sugrim's wife, Bernadette Sugrim, who he described as a warm and honest person who is “100 percent credible."

Bernadette Sugrim testified last year that Sugrim told her he killed Gibson, who was working as a prostitute, in 2003 and Demetrius Carter in a New York state murder in 1996.

She said she was too afraid for her family to report the information to police until after Sugrim was arrested for beating his 11-year-old daughter last year in Oshtemo Township. Sugrim is currently serving a prison sentence for that assault.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Robert Champion gave several examples of Sugrim not being a domineering person and called into question Bernadette Sugrim's credibility.

“If what Bernadette is saying is true, she had repeated opportunities to go to police and she never did,” Champion said.

Robert Shutty, who discovered Gibson's body while walking his dogs near his home, was among the first witnesses called to the stand. He said he immediately went to police after finding the body.

Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Assistant Chief Karianne Thomas was called to the stand to explain photos and video of Gibson's body, which was found in a secluded railroad area just east of Palmer Avenue and Lane Avenue in the city's Edison neighborhood, stab wounds and Photos showed deep lacerations in her legs, stab wounds and a slit throat. The way in which Gibson was positioned, with her legs pulled out in opposite directions, was shocking to the police investigating the scene, according to Thomas.

“The face was definitely covered with more dirt, debris and rock,” said Thomas. “The face was not identifiable. Whoever did it does not want them to be easily recognized.

"One thing we noticed was position of body ... for a shocking effect. It was displayed and splayed open like that. For the severity of the wounds, where's the blood? There should be a lot of blood and there was very little. There's not much blood on the body, so it appeared it was cleaned.”

Gibson's body was covered with a piece of board, a concrete block, trees, bushes and dirt when she was found on Sept. 14, 2003.

Thomas said police are confident the murder site was not near where Gibson's body was found. Evidence of sexual intercourse taking place the night Gibson was killed was found later in the investigation, but Thomas said there was no lacerations or tearing that normally indicate rape.